The Shells of the Past
by BecauseSheToldMeTo
Summary: Azula is dragged by Zuko somewhere in an attempt to cure his sister's insanity. Will it work, or will they both end up dead from the risk he takes?


_Just a little something I wrote because I was bored. I saw BryttKrou's picture "_Avatar Dangerous Psychotherapy" _on Deviantart__, and it inspired me to write this. :3 I thought it was an interesting concept._

_

* * *

_

He wouldn't take his hands off of her, his filthy hands. She wanted to burn him, to kill him and watch him scream in agony as he died—before he killed her. That's what he was going to do. Why else would he drag her from her prison of white walls all the way out here to this alter?

She struggled in his arms. She commanded him to release her, screamed and thrashed, snarled and snapped. The blue flames that had once beckoned to her call did not come; had not been able to come since she'd been carried away after her loss to the Water Tribe wench.

But she was not as strong as she had once been. Already she found her strength waning. By the time Zuko had led her to the top of the stone steps, she hung loose in his grip. From below she heard someone shout, drums beat. The barbarians were starting to chant something in a dialect she didn't recognize. They were all watching her with hungry eyes.

_He'll going to kill you_, the familiar voice in her head hissed. _Slit your neck here on this alter. A traitor to his own blood. A traitor. Traitor!_

She could barely hear the massive rumbles coming from the caves to her left and right over the screaming in her head, hardly felt the shifting of earth as something massive moved underground. She twisted her neck around to look at her brother—_no, the traitor_—and saw his face set with grim determination. He was shaking, too. With anger?

He didn't look at her. His gaze was focused ahead at the nearest cave.

The chanting and banging stopped almost too quickly, leaving her head humming with the silence that followed. She jumped when a horn sounded from somewhere.

_Can't get away. There's no escape. Betrayed again._

Tears stung her cheeks and her anger flared up again. "Let me go!" she screamed, pleaded. And to her shock, he did. She hadn't even realized that he'd been holding her up, supporting her weight. She'd forgotten she was too weak to stand. Without his support she pitched forward onto her knees.

Then it happened. Her head snapped up at the high-pitched shriek from inside the caves and she watched as two huge creatures burst from the openings like fire bursting from one's fist.

Dragons.

The beasts circled around them through the air, their wing beats sending up flurries of wind so powerful that she was knocked to her side and her hair whipped around her head so wildly it stung her cheeks.

She was suddenly aware of something brushing against the corners of her mind, whispering things she couldn't understand. It started softly, but before she knew it, the intruder burst through her thoughts, leaving the dark voice that had haunted her mind for so long quailing in its wake.

Colors sighed in her mind's eye, like wisps of smoke. Blue, red. Red, blue. She was suddenly far, far away, floating with these two presences. They brought with them feelings of comfort, of peace. For the first time in a long while, she could think clearly.

_Peace, sister. _A voice resonated like a soft bell, tinted with red.

_Let the troubled waves of your mind calm._ Another voice, this one a blue that encased her like a warm blanket.

_We will help you, t_he two voices echoed together. _Our young brother of fire has brought you here with a prayer for healing._

_But your ailment is that of the mind. We cannot assist you if you will not allow it._

_Open yourself. Open your spirit, young sister._

She couldn't remember allowing these strange entities in, all she knew was that one minute she was floating in a peaceful void and the next she was being ripped to pieces. Images of her childhood flashed before her eyes; of her mother, of Ozai, of Zuko. Old feelings of shame, confusion, hurt, betrayal, welled up inside her. She felt like her very soul was being peeled like an orange, layer after layer ripped away and thrown aside.

"_I don't get why he's so upset," she said. "It was his fault for getting so attached to it. Besides, it's just a dumb animal. It's stupid."_

"_Azula, there's nothing stupid about loving something. Or someone." Her mother stared down at her. The willow tree they sat under shaded them from the bright sun, and Azula stared out at the turtle-ducks on the pond. _

"_Yes there is. Why get attached to something if you know it's going to eventually die? Everything dies in the end. Or leaves."_

_She felt her mother's arm wrap around her shoulder, but she didn't lean in to it. She didn't like these private moments with her mother. They were always awkward."Love never dies," Ursa said. "Though someone might pass on, we still remember them. They live on in us."_

"_That's just drabble that parents tell their children to make them feel better," Azula said, folding her arms. This talk of love and rainbows was making her sick. It was revolting. It didn't even make sense. _

_Her mother was silent for a moment as the two of them stared out over the pond. Then she pulled Azula close to her despite her daughter's stiffening protest. "I will always love you, Azula."_

_And somewhere deep inside, Azula believed her. Trusted her. Despite the fact her mother thought her a monster._

_She was lying in her bed in the middle of the night, staring at the wall. Father had said he was going to kill Zuzu. She didn't quite know how to feel about it. Would Ozai really go through with it? It would be nice to be an only child without a whiny brother bugging her all the time. But what if mother had been able to talk him out of it?_

_A noise at the door. She lifted her head._

"_Mom?"_

_Ursa approached the bed. She had her travelling cloak on. What was-?_

_Before she could say anything, her mother had her in a tight embrace, and, confused, all Azula could do was wait for her to finish and pull away. She didn't know what to do; her mother had never paid much attention to her before._

"_Remember that I will always love you, Azula."_

_She couldn't believe it. She wanted to scoff at this woman for coming into her room just to blather nonsense again. But something about her tone…_

"_You're leaving, aren't you." She already knew the answer. Of course. "You say you love me and yet you leave."_

_It was stupid to get attached. Stupid for her to have believed, even minutely, that her mother would be different._

_The day after was when her fire had burned blue._

_Stupid. She was stupid. Ursa was stupid. A traitor. Like all the others. She'd thought she'd loved her.. No one loved her._

_Peace, little fire sister._

She found herself lying on the rocky alter. The dragons were gone. With them they had taken the feelings of comfort. Now she felt hollow, bare, vulnerable, stripped of all that she had held onto. An empty shell abandoned. They'd left her just like everyone else. Unloved..

Something pulled her up and held her close, wrapped around her. For a moment she was confused and then she remembered.

_Zuko…_

She crumpled in his embrace, rested her head against his chest, and cried.


End file.
